Thread: 14 year old being called a martyr in "immigration debat

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... e0415.html

Suicide raises rhetoric in immigration debate

Greg Risling
Associated Press
Apr. 15, 2006 12:00 AM

ONTARIO, Calif. - Hours after eighth-grader Anthony Soltero was called to the vice principal's office, he took his stepfather's rifle and killed himself.

Now, Anthony is being portrayed as a martyr in the immigration debate.

The boy's family says he killed himself because he had been threatened with jail for walking out of school to protest proposed changes to immigration law.

School officials deny he took part in the protests and deny he was threatened with anything more than missing a dance or field trip. They say he simply cut class.

Anthony, 14, ducked out of DeAnza Middle School on March 28, the same day thousands of students across Southern California took part in walkouts and protest marches. He killed himself at home two days later, leaving a suicide note in which he blamed the run-in with the vice principal, a family lawyer said.

On the Internet, several blogs have portrayed Anthony as a martyr. The word was used by one civil rights activist aligned with his family. The headline on one posting pronounced the suicide "First death from walkouts."

Officials with the Ontario-Montclair School District about 45 miles east of Los Angeles expressed sympathy for Anthony's family but adamantly defended the vice principal.

The school district said four students left school March 28. Superintendent Sharon McGehee has said that interviews with students and faculty members show the boy and the other students never marched with protesters.

Two days later, the vice principal told Anthony and three other students that for their truancy they could choose whether to miss a field trip or a dance, McGehee said.

That was not what Anthony told his mother by phone moments before shooting himself, nor what he wrote in a suicide note, according to lawyers for the family.

Attorney Samuel Paz asserted that interviews with the other students support the mother's recollection: that Anthony was told he could be jailed for three years and his parents could be fined.

In his suicide note, the boy named the vice principal and "expresses his fear and worry about what would happen to him," Paz said.

That's Sick. That poor unstable child being used like that. Obviously he had sever issues at home and school. Too bad he didn't get some help!

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3712875

District officials have disputed those claims, saying Anthony's only punishment for truancy was to give up attending either an eighth-grade school dance or year-end field trip.They also have said their investigation turned up no evidence that he even left the school to march in protests, and that he joined three other students simply to cut class.

Originally Posted by Dixie

That's Sick. That poor unstable child being used like that. Obviously he had sever issues at home and school. Too bad he didn't get some help!

The incident is truly unfortunate and sad, but the child obviously had issues that led up to his suicide, one is that he seemed incapable of dealing with abstract statements.

But watch the pro-illegal immigration folks use him as a **poster child for illegal immigration.**

http://www.dailybulletin.com/search/ci_4119380

Article Launched: 08/01/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT

School district rejects claim of liabilty in Soltero suicide
Dead boy's family can sue
By Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

ONTARIO -- The Ontario-Montclair School District has denied a claim filed by the family who blames their son's suicide on an administrator, allowing the family to file a lawsuit over the death.

The district's board of trustees voted to reject the Soltero family's claim at its July 6 meeting. The family has said Anthony Soltero, 14, shot himself March 30 because an assistant principal threatened him with harsh discipline for skipping class to attend an immigration rally. He died April 1.

The boy's death became a flash point in the debate over how best to reform the nation's immigration laws. An April 15 march in downtown Los Angeles was dedicated to Anthony's memory, and attended by several classmates from Ontario's De Anza Middle School, which he had attended.

Many at pro-immigrant rallies have called the boy a martyr who died for the cause, though a fellow student who was with Anthony on March 28 said they only attended the rally briefly before they were scared off by the heavy police presence.

The claim filed by the Soltero family accused the district of negligence and interfering with Anthony's right of free expression under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but the school board disagreed.

"Basically, the board discussed that item in closed session because of the potential for litigation at a previous board meeting," said Christine McGrew, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. The district referred all calls for comment to the county office.

"Then in open session ... they took action to reject the claim," McGrew said.

The family's attorney did not return calls seeking comment, but a lawyer hired by the school district said "all indications" pointed to a suit against the district.

"In the end, it's up to (the family) whether they decide to go forward with a lawsuit," said attorney Calvin House.

For several days in March, thousands of students in schools around the region walked out as part of a planned mass rally to protest H.R. 4437 -- a House bill that would create harsh punishments for illegal immigrants, including making it a felony to be in the country without permission.

The bill passed the House in December, but the version approved this year by the Senate left out many of the more restrictive provisions, and included a plan to allow many illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and eventually gain legal status.

Neither version has become law. The two houses of Congress have yet to choose members for a conference committee to hammer out final legislation, and analysts say it is unlikely a compromise will be reached this year.

Oh for pete's sake. If this was an American kid, nobody would be paying this kind of attention.

The kid had a problem and obviously mummy and doddy didn't deal with it, so they're exploiting his death for their own benefit.

I'm sorry a child died, but to exploit his death is unconscionable. To use a child's death for your own benefit is sick and disgusting.

Hmmm, dear old mom and dad wouldn't be trying to fatten their pockets with this lie, would they?

What kind of person would try and profit from their child's death? Talk about taking no responsibility

I can't seem to find any information on the States Attorney prosecuting the parents for negligence .

With an newer empty house used car and job opening, should be plenty of AMERICANS willing to step in. The govenment should check on the
taxes and social security employer payments, as a diary farm do they get
goverment farm aid? How many orther farms in the area support illegals?